Diamond Clothing Buco J100 review.

[A-1]

Looks great to me. Really good fit. Just a little stiff of a posture. Haha.


- Everything's Collapsing! -

 

[A-1]

Thanks for the fit pic by the way. If anyone has a fit pic of a black jacket, I'd love to see it. But the brown sure is beautiful.


- Everything's Collapsing! -

 

[Carlos840]

Thanks for the fit pic by the way. If anyone has a fit pic of a black jacket, I'd love to see it. But the brown sure is beautiful.


- Everything's Collapsing! -

Page 1 has a lot of fit pics...

 

[A-1]

True! Saw them already. Thanks!
Carlos, the jacket suits you so well. Has it changed with wear? I mean the leather.
Anyone any steer hide fit pics?

 

[Carlos840]

True! Saw them already. Thanks!
Carlos, the jacket suits you so well. Has it changed with wear? I mean the leather.
Anyone any steer hide fit pics?

Thanks, the leather is a lot less shinny and is showing great creases at the elbows, but that's about it.
Considering it is black on black i don't think it will ever get the kind of patina you get with some tea core leathers, or the Aero FQHH.

My main problem with it now is the lining has very poor durability, the bottom hem is fraying like mad, everytime i wear it i have to spent some time cutting lose threads off the bottom.

 

[A-1]

Yeah, I can imagine that with that kind of lining. The satin may not be very durable.

I’m getting the black/tea core steer. I’m really curious if anyone has any photos of the fading of HH or steer tea core leather from DD.

I’ve come to prefer steer a little bit over horse as to me it seemed a little more comfy. However, I seem to be one of the few to prefer steer to horse, although I also really like the looks of the horse hide...

 

[bretron]

Not to get wayyyy off topic, but were original Bucos actually made with black analine finished (aka "tea core") and not black pigment dyed leathers? I can't recall seeing an original that had that mellowed brown look to it.

Boots yes, but jackets?

 

[Edward]

I completely agree. The ability to interact with the craftsman makes for a far more rewarding experience. That said, it does not necessarily result in a better made product. I suspect the guy in the photo has more experience, and has made more jackets, than certain other jacket makers that we know by name. Likewise, the unnamed craftsmen and woman at Aero have more experience, and are more skilled, than certain branded craftsmen.

It's horses for courses, really. I certainly really enjoy ordering an Aero to my spec - getting to go in and be measured up in the factory and talking over all the options with the folks who would be cutting my jacket was particularly great - and certainly I find it worth paying more for that. On the other hand, sometimes you find you can get what you want off the rack, at a great bargain. My Schott 618 isn't, imo, quite as good as the Aero equivalent, but I got a good deal on it, it's still a great jacket, and it left me with more money to spend on a different Aero that will get worn much more often than the Perfecto. Similarly, when I wanted a light, inexpensive jacket that I could fly off to China with and where it wouldn't be the end of the world if it got pinched from a hotel room or lost in baggage transfer, a Wested Indy turned out to be a best option. Different strokes for different folks, and all that. That's the great thing about the range of makers we have available to us - it's lovely to have these choices.

Just went through the checkout system on the RMC website. Only shipping to Japan. Sorry!

Foreigners pay the tough luck price.

Very common in business, I fear. I've been turned down a number of tiems trying to buy all sorts of things from the US for the very reason that the UK supplier has doubled the price; the company, of course, can't be blamed for being loyal to its UK business partners. The most frustrating one was a particular guitar I was after, as the US company wouldn't sell to me owing to them having a UK istributor, but the UK distributor chose not to carry the left-handed model I wanted....

Exactly! Nice to have more and more options- a variety of price points, customization, types of leathers, etc.
These are mighty good days if you're a high end leather jacket addict!

Precisecement!

A digression. That capitalized "close" made me laugh. In leather jackets I've owned premium brands and less celebrated jackets - the difference has never been overly significant enough to me.

Horses for courses again. Whatever your consumer durable of choice is - leather jackets, cars, motorcycles, cameras, watches.... - you'll find that there's an average base price that you need to spend to get something decent. Say that's £100. The next one 'up' in qualitative terms might be £200, though that doesn't mean that even if better, it's twice as good. One at £400 might be twice as good as the £100 item. Does that mean it's worth four times the price? Here in the UK, you can buy an Epiphone Les Paul for around 20% of the price of the equivalent, full-blooded Gibson model. The Gibson is twice the guitar, certainly.... does that mean it's worth five times the money? You'd likely say no. Other folks will say yes. Chances are no two of us will always say the differences - minimal as they might be - are worth paying for the premium product in every case. This is where the subjective element of it all comes in. This is what we call the law of diminishing returns - as price goes up, differences start to become more minimal. Most of us aren't in the position where money is no object, so we have to decide what our ceiling price is.... that's gonig to vary for everyone. After all, if everybody thinks Jacket Brand X is overpriced, they'll soon go out of business, right?

don't wan to get too off topic but I think a lot of naysaying in general for any jackets comes from people not being able to afford all the jackets they want so have to dismiss things secretly wanted or folks buy a certain brand thinking its the best, then something competitive/better comes along and the ego gets bruised. Seen this on many a forum but I am not being specific to any individuals. Although there is some truth to the notion of seeing one in person vs. just going on pictures, I don't agree with the "if you don't have one you can't comment". We would never be able to function in the world if we based things only on first hand knowledge. I do think anonymous members/posts can lead to all sorts of behaviors, comments, etc, that would not be the case if we were all sitting around in a bar chatting.

There's certainly an element of caveat emptor a much about advice on the internet as anything else. Ultimately, all you can do is do all the research you can do / wish to do, and then decide if you want to spend your money on whatever it is...

I wouldn't entirely negate the opinion of people who haven't bought a particular product - they may have a genuine reason why not, which I might like to hear. Of course, noone should say "I didn't buy because I handled and it was rubbish" if they haven't actually seen the jacket, though there may be other issues or things that would matter to me (say the company had acquired hide unethically, or was otherwise questionable in its behaviour.... again, though, genuinely provable rather than underhand accusations). You do make a good point, though - none of us should run down a product without reasonable experience. I certainly wouldn't want to criticise the feel of the hide on a jacket I'd not seen in person.

It's easy to get too bogged down into brands and reputation. Some of the greatest leathers of 50-70 years ago probably wouldn't please our current quality control fanatics, but those jackets are why we're here today.

It's fascinating how the market has changed, isn't it? It does wryly amuse me that the expected standard for an A2 nowadays is so much higher than probably the vast majority of the real thing would have been able to match back in the day. That said, I don't think it's entirely unreasonable to have the high expectations we generally do (as distinct from being insanely picky, as I know some can be!), given that we're not paying the equivalent price nowadays (scaled up, allowing for inflation, the likes of a 40s Sears leather jacket would be a mall jacket in price at least these days) but something significantly higher, for what is now a niche, luxury product rather than mass-market.

 

[Gav]

What are the arm holes like on a dd j100?

 

[dudewuttheheck]

What are the arm holes like on a dd j100?

That's definitely something he gets right IMO. They are fairly high, so no batwinging at all, but the arms are large enough for well built people. His cut is definitely fantastic. I wish RMC used his cut haha.

 

[A-1]

Not to get wayyyy off topic, but were original Bucos actually made with black analine finished (aka "tea core") and not black pigment dyed leathers? I can't recall seeing an original that had that mellowed brown look to it.

Boots yes, but jackets?

Yo Bret!

- Everything's Collapsing! -

 

[Seb Lucas]

Thanks, the leather is a lot less shinny and is showing great creases at the elbows, but that's about it.
Considering it is black on black i don't think it will ever get the kind of patina you get with some tea core leathers, or the Aero FQHH.

My main problem with it now is the lining has very poor durability, the bottom hem is fraying like mad, everytime i wear it i have to spent some time cutting lose threads off the bottom.

If it's cotton lining, surely DD uses the same heavy duty stuff that Goodwear and other artisan makers use?

 

[Jägernaut]

That J100 has misaligned pockets.

 

[bretron]

^^ lol

 

[dudewuttheheck]

lol... it really does though...

 

[Carlos840]

If it's cotton lining, surely DD uses the same heavy duty stuff that Goodwear and other artisan makers use?

Well, his website says cotton drill lining, but i somehow got a satin lining. It's actually very thick, much more so than the rayon lining in my ELMC, but it seems to fray very easily.

 

[Seb Lucas]

So the lining wasn't what you ordered either.... ?

Any photos of the fraying?

I have a G&B Indy I got 10 years ago - lining still looks new.

 

[Carlos840]

So the lining wasn't what you ordered either.... ?

Any photos of the fraying?

I have a G&B Indy I got 10 years ago - lining still looks new.

Well, i didn't specify the lining i wanted, since his website only mentioned black cotton drill, that's what i assumed i would get. I just trimmed all the loose ends so it looks alright right now, but it doesn't take long to fray again...

I seriously doubt this lining will last 10 years!

 

[Roma]

I also have a problem with fraying lining on my cafe racer. I think it's due to the very slim fit. The lining is cotton. Durable thick Aero's cotton, but still... I have my boots resoled at times, so I think I'll have to have my jackets re-lined sometimes Say, every 5 or 10 years, I dunno. Some jackets are good at it, but a couple of my jackets have that problem.

 

[A-1]

The lining is mostly the weakest part of a leather jacket. In my BK jacket there were three holes in it after 2 weeks.
I’ll go with the 15oz. Buffalo Plaid wool lining. Should be alright for longer than 2 weeks.